OUR LONDON LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 9763, 20 July 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR LONDON LETTER.

AftGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. London, May 31. Mr Ward had an unusually busy day last Saturday. Mrs Ward and he were present in the morning at the Horse Guarde to Witness tho military spectacle of the Trooping of the Colors, and had a good look at our Afghan victor, tho JShahssida Nazruliah Khau. From there they drove to the Park and saw the meet of the Four-iu-Hand Club. H«re Mr Ward left his wife .with friends, and dashed off to Paddington to catch the Oxford express. He spent the afternoon withProfesaorLonipriereriiscussiiig S.imoan affairs, in which this savaut takes a warm interest. Time allowed of but a hasty glimpse of the Bodleian and other 'Varsity aights, and then Mr Ward Mas speeding back to town for the Queen's Birthday dinner at the Colonial Office. Here your Treasurer disported himself for the first time in court dress. Later he went to Brook House, where Lady Twccdmouth held a leviathan reception in lieu of the usual Foreign Offico crush.

On Monday afternoon Mr Ward again donned court dress, and attended tho levwe of H.R.H. tho Prince of Wales at St. James's Palace This was the first opportunity the Heir Apparent litis had of recognising Mr Ward, and his reception left nothing to be desired in the way of graciousuess. In the evening Mr and Mrs Ward drove down to Richmond and dined on the Terrace at the Star and Garter, and on Tuesday they wont to see Sarah Bernhardt at Daly's Theatre, in 'Gismonda,' a deadly dull aud dopressing show, in my humble opinion. On Wednesday Mr Ward had the oiler of a seat on Lord Tweedmouth's drug, and the opportunity of seeing a capital Derby in company with a bevy of Cabinet Ministers, but duty kept him tied to the board table of the Bank of New Zealcuid, where a scheme for wiping out £730,000 worth of debentures and converting £730,000 more was under consideration. In the afternoon your Treasurer had a final interview with Lord Ripon, and in the evening replied to the toast of the visitors at the Chamber of Commerce dinner. Mr and Mrs Ward had also cards for the State ball at Buckingham Palace, but this function they were obliged to reluctantly forego. Mr Ward has been spending much of his time this week at the Bank of New Zealand, arranging business in connection with tho wiping out and conversion of the Estates Company debentures. In this connection I think the shortest way to describe these operations, aud at the same time to show what is thought of your Treasurer's work in Loudon, will be to quote Mr Philip Mennell. He says :

If the conversion of the remaining 1750,000 of 5J percent debentures of tho Bank of New Zealand Estates Company was piirtof the programme which Mr Ward had in view when he canie Over to this country, its success will form the crooning stone of the edifice of which he laid the foundation in lloating the riivst 3 per cent. Government Joan of New Zealand a few weeks back. Tomorrow will witness tho repayment of tho first .£750,000 of bowls which will be •'ntiroly wiped out l<y the application uf the vail money recently drawn from the shareholders, and by the employment of funds otherwise applicable for the purpose. No doubt £lO5 is a stiff amount to have to pay per ceut., but no one can challenge the expediency of the entire scheme for paying otf onehalf and converting the other moiety of the original £1,500,000 obligation. It was quite impossible that the Estates Company could bi handled under present circumstances so as to profitably pay 5J per rent, even on £750,000, but there can be little reason for doubting that 4 per cent, can bo comfortably compassed. I imagine that very few holders of the <"<} percent, debentures will lie so foolish as to refuse their £5 in fash and. their safe 4 pci cent for the future.. SIR (iEOKUE UKEY. Though Sir George Grey professes to prefer cold to warm weather, the last few days *cem to have eulivencd him -considerably. 1 met the G.O.M. calling on the Agent-General yesterday, and I hear he looked in the other day on Mr Mcnnell at the ' British Australasian' o«tcc, and, after chatting for some time> insisted on walking to Charing Cross with him. We have given up asking Sir George about his plans, as he doesn't like it. Had Mr Ward been returning by a direct steamer, I think he would have availed himself of the escort, but the fatigue and excitement of the jounroy through America daunted him. LADY I'EKCEVAL AMI Tttti ENTKEE. Some foolish persons who know nothing whatever of the subtleties of Court procedure are saying that if the Agent-General could obtain tiie adm to the Queen's Drawing Room for his own wife he might surtly have got it for Mrs Ward. Ignorance alone can excuse such remarks. As a matter oi fact the endxt to the Drawing Room of May 8 (which Mrs Ward attended) was refused to nearly 200 ladies. It is not, perhaps, right to mention names, but just to show the absurdity of the co.nplaint I may tell you such grand dames as the Duchess of Bedford and Lady Lubbock were amongst those who failed to obtain the privilege. Had Sir Westby Perceval asked for it, then, either for Lady Perceval or Mrs Ward it would certainly have been refused. The Queen herself supervises the en'tie list now, «nd on May 8 she struck out all except personal friends. The Drawing Room of the 22nd (which Lady Perceval attended) was held, not by Her Majesty, but by Princess Louise (ou behalf of Her Majesty)* and happened to be the lightest of the season. The Agent-General asked for the untrce on behalf of his wife because of her ill-health and the great fatigue of attending with the general oompauy. The privilege being granted was a great compliment to the representative of New Zealand, and it would be absurd to minimise it. No doubt the personalities of Sir Westby and Lady Perceval onsiderably influenced Lord Carnngton. Hid the other Australasian Agents been at all presentable the whole lot would without doubt have some time ago been placed on similar footing to the foreign embassies and legations. The enormous comfort and convenience of the entree may be gathered from the fact that, whereas going to Court occupied Mrs Ward nearly four hours and a-half, Lady Perceval was in and out of the Palace in half an hour. I'EKSONAL AND GENERAL. The slight stroke of paralysis from which Captain William Ashby has been suffering is, I am glad to learn, yielding to treatment, and though still very weak he can move his aim and side agaiu. During the last few days the captain has Seen one or two friends, and been told of his old comrade Dr Houeyniaivs death. The news of the latter greatly distressed him. Dr Cooper Key is attending the captain. In accordance with the known wishes of the late Dr Honeyman, his remains were convoyed from Brighton via London to his uative village of Luchars, St. Audreys, Fife, an 1 buried iu the parish churchyard last Friday. The cause of his death was apoplexy, not paralysis, and the account we first heard of the circumstances scarcely accurate. It seems the doctor hud breakfasted and retired to Lis study to write appearing quite well. Suddenly someone heard a fall, and on going to the room found the doctor insensible. He never recovered consciousness. Captain Ashby being ill, the work of meeting Mr Hay at Plymouth and breaking the news of the doctor's death devolved on Mr Sinclair Gillies, who i 3 a cousin of Mrs Honeyman and a nephew of Mr Hay. Mr John Hay's sister, Miss Hay, arrived Home per Orizaba on Tuesday, and has gone to Brighton, where she will remain at present. There is a very good notice of Mrs Baker's books in the current number of the ' Baptist Union' by Dr Clifford, the eminent Nonconformist divine. Should this lady not get over her asthma before next winter she and Miss Ethel Baker will spend it with friends on the Riviera.

Mr J. H. Witheford has taken out a pasfcport and is off to Russia on mining business. Unless he should be arrested as a Nihilist and sent to Siberia, or unless some Sclav princess, fascinated by the little man's beaux yeux, should carry him off to a lonely castle in the Caucasus, he will on his return from St. Petersburg seal up the sacks of sovereigns he has amassed in London and take ship for JNew Zealand. The comic papers which have been cracking jokes at the "Hon." Joseph Howard's expense may then look out for squalls. Truth to tell, I think I could stand a good many newspaper jokes about a trip Home if I'd turned travel to such good purpose as Mr Witheford seems to have) done. To those who know the conservatism of highclass financiers and the difficulty of persuading them to do aught but pluck and plunder the confidiug stranger, the Now Zcalandor's

successes appear Wonderful. Apropos by the way of Mr Witheford's excursion to the Admiralty, I hear he haß supplied th» director of H.M. Dockyards with all the information in writing he required. littEß-IMPERIAL COM M UNICATION. Lord Rosebery's partial restoration to health was sigualised by thtt Associated Chambers of Commerce on Saturday With a deputation in i'aVor of the ''all red" steamship and cable route* The Premier, of course, could t-ll thti amiable M.P.s nothing but what they already knew—namely, that the Government was quite willing to help providiug the Treasury, the Post Otfic?, aud the. Colonial Ofiiec saw fit to advise subsidising the new touLe. But deputations are the fashion nowadays, and it is uot for the head of a tottering Government to run counter to fashion by refusing to receive one. Sir Albert Rollet was the introducer 6f the party, and naturally did the lion's share of the talking. He said that there was a growiug disposition ou the part of the colonies to associate together with reference to trading matters, and that tendency was viewed Willi satisfaction by all who took a deep interest in the consolidation of the Empire, especially to the Uhambers of Commerce. They hoped for the time when there might bo a very close commercial connection between all portions of the Empire. They were well tUVtU'c of the grievous disadvantage of those exclusive tariffs whioh Were such a marked feature of medcrn legislation, and, while they did hoi propose any fiscal changes oil our part Or any fanciful remedies, they did think this proposed inter-Imperial postal and telegraphic communication would be a practical way to cultivate those markets which might be held to us by both sympathy and interest. For that reason he thought the Chambers of Commerce, without exception, approved tho proceedings of the Ottawa Conference, It was felt that an inter-Imperial system of communication would aid greatly in increasing trade and in opening up such markets as tho3e of China and Japan. Also, that a complete line of communication on English soil and by English routes was stragetically as well as commercially desirable. The colonies, said Sir Albert, were doing their part to that end, and they hoped Great Britain would do hers, and would be able to give an early assurance that she would perform her duty in the matter. By the completion of the system suggested a great Saving of time in the mails could be effected, such as for example the Mails from England would reach Montreal twenty-nine hours sooner than now, Toronto thirty hours, Winnipeg twenty-six hours, and Vancouver twenty-tour hours —[Mem. ! The saing appears from these figures to diminish as the mail goes further and further west, and the question which opponents of the "all red route 1 ' naturally put is -. " Will there be any saving ' at all at all' by the time it reaches Australia?"] Sir Albert, having exhausted his eloquence pro ttm., gave way to a north country shipowner, who expressed great sorrow that England had not taken the initiative in this great enterprise, instead of leaving it to the colonies. Then Sir Joseph Pease, Sir A. Hickman, and Sir John Leng orated in turn, and one of them made the tragic discovery that in event of a Continental war, any opponent of tho Old Country might cut off our communication with India and the colonies by merely cutting that part of the line of communication which passed through the enemies' territories.

Lord Roaebery was eventually allowed to speak. He regretted that Sir WilliaM Harcourt and Mr Arnold Mofley were detained in the House of Commons, both being peeuliarlv interested in the project under notice, lhelOssof their presence, he said, was hot merely positive, but relative, because lie belonged to a House which is debarred from any consideration of finance, and finance was the ground upon which the question at issue rested. He could give the deputation no decision on behalf of the Government, for tho simple reason that the matter was still i»dj jit-dice, an inter - departmental committee, consisting of representatives of the Treasury, the Post Office-, and the Colonial Office, having the matter under consideration. Its last bitting, ■indeed, had taken place on Friday, but Lord Rosebery had not been iuformedof its conclusions. As to Mr Plutnmer's regrets, the Premier said he did not share them. He thought it a most hopeful fact that the initiative came from the colonies, and did uot think that anyone who studies very closely the internal economy of the colonies and their moral susceptibilities could fail to think that nil propositions of thi3 kind can more healthily and with greater prospects of success come from the colonies to the Mother Country than in the somewhat dictatorial fashion in which sometimes they might seem to come from the Mother Couutry. In conclusion tho Premier wished the deputation "Codspeed," and after thanking him they retired. aittsrt'AL. Mandeno Jackson, who has been laid up for a fortnight with a bad cold, sticks to it (the jeers of Howells and Steveti9 notwithstanding) that Notcutt has fixed up an Australian tour for Sims Reeves this autumn. Furthermore) he says that the agent assured him that the engagement was duly " signed and sealed," and that Mr Poole would run the veteran tenor. As for his being uncertain and likely to disappoint audiences, as he used to do in days gone by, Notcutt could only declare that (Sims Reeves had been engaged by him to sing on ninety-two occasions and, uevcr once failed to appear. His voice, of course, is gone, but his art remain". Mr Jackson told us he was astonished to find how much he learnt from hearing the old man sing a well-known ballad. Evangeline Florence, whom Howells and Stevens have engaged for their autumn tour, has, Mr Jackson considers, quite as marvellous a voice as the agents claim. "They call her," said the New Zealand tenor, " the Eiffel tower soprano. Bar Marguerite Macintyrc there is no one on ths concert stage whom I think should do better in Australia. She heads our light sopranos to-day." Mis 3 Amy Sherwin gave a lunch at her house in St. John's Wood the other day to Sir W. C. Robinson, the guests invited to meet the West Australian Covernor including Sir George F. Cowan, Sir Joseph and Lady Barnby, Mr and Mrs Shakespeare, Minnie Fischer, Douglas Powell, Marie Wurm, George Clulsam, and Mandeco Jackson. JJTEKAKY NOTES. It-is Mr Marriott-Watson's luck to be a few months behind the times with his contributions to Mr John Lane's notable, or notorious, Keynote scries. If 'At the Corner' had appeared simultaneously with " George Egerton's " first volume it might, like that work, be now in a tenth edition. Unquestionably such powerful, though sordid and ghastly, studies of sex-mania as the New Zealand novelist's title talc and 'Tho House of Shame' arc, from a purely artistic standpoint, far abler, far more thrilling, and far better written than anything in ' Discords.' But, unfortunately for Mr Watson, we arc just at. present in tho first fierce spasm of a strong revulsion of« public taste and feeling. Certain recent literary productions stank so abominably that even the most tolerant began to exhibit disgust. Then "The Philistine" spoke out, prodding the reading public's conscience with considerable effect. And finally came the unmasking of Oscar Wilde. It doesn't do now to say you musn't judge a man by his books. " What about Oscar ?" is the reply. So we are all very virtuous and very determined to sit on the sex-maniac school, " cruel only to be kind," etc. This accounts for the manner in which Mr Watson's book has been received in certain quarters and for the severity of the reviewers' judgment. I hope myself it may discourage him from again following the same track. Apart from moral considerations, tales dealing with nothing save the varieties and subtleties of lawless passion begin to bore, one unspeakably. Mr J. F. Hogan's reminiscences of his recent tour in Canada and Australia will be published forthwith under the title of ' The Sister Dominions.'

Professor Jenks, of University College, Liverpool, has written the history of the Australasian colonies from their foundation to the year 1593. The book will appear immediately as the new volume in the Cambridge historical series, edited by Professor Protnero, of Edinburgh. Messrs Muller ana Co., of Amsterdam,

announce ft photo • lithographed reproductlon.o|".a.bel Xaaman's manijisorjpt journal of the/ftiscovißry of #ifch ah Engli'sli and afid geographical notes V§ bhfe best' lSngtiah and Ditteh Script forma about 200 pages,-- including fifty-three maps and designs. The versions hitherto published in English and Dutoh have been neither accurate nor oomplete. „.,. The same firm have .also in. hand large maps of sfeVeljiteentn Oentrttryishowing the Various' epbdhs iniithe cartoigraphy of Australia as understood by the Dutch cartographers. Only 100 copies will ba published, so that intending subscribers oughD to write to Herren Frederick Muller and Co., Amsterdam, on the subject at once* Mr Gilbert Parkef is back again in London, and has brought with him his winter's work in the shape of two new hovels.

Had Oscar Wilde escaped through a second disagreement of the jury (even his relatives did not anticipate an acquittal) it was arranged he should start at once for Australia with PUruy Douglas (otherwise Lord Douglas, of Hawick), and reside some; where quietlv "up country" till tithe had obscured folks' memories of the recent scandals. But though " the mills of God grind slowly they grind exceeding small;" Twenty-jive years' immunity tlid n<it mean Wildo was to escape tliq fruit of his evil deeds. '.The' great law of retribution was steadily working itself out. A mistaken sense of safety begot a suicidal carelessness, and his colossal vanity and overweening selfconfidence actually led at last to the wretched man complacently slipping over his neck the noose which han strangled him for ever. Lee medismiss the subject herewith an apt'opo? quotation from an article by tho ccnvlet himself in the 'Nineteenth Century': " The things people say of a man)" wrote Ocar, "do not. alter a mail; lie is what he is. Public opinion is bf ho value whateveh After all, even in prison a man lean be free—his soul can be free. His personality can be untroubled. He can be at peace." Let us hope, for his own sake, that Wilde may be able to practically demonstrate the truth of these statements. Conscience, one has heard, makes eowards even of philosophers.